In France, church bells ring joyfully during the year. But the bells stop ringing on the Thursday before Good Friday. They are silent for a few days while people remember the death of Jesus. On Easter Sunday morning, the bells ring out, telling people that Jesus is alive again. When people hear the bells, they kiss and hug one another.
Many children wake up on Easter Sunday and find eggs scattered about their rooms. They look in the nests they have placed in their yards or gardens and find Easter eggs in them. The eggs are said to have been bought from Rome where the bell ringing had gone to see the Pope and when the bells returned they bought with them the eggs.
In some parts of France, children look for four white horses pulling a chariot full of eggs.
In France the children throw eggs up in the air. The first one to drop it loses.
An old French custom was a contest of rolling raw eggs down a gentle slope--the surviving egg was the victory egg and symbolized the stone being rolled away from the tomb.
In France an egg game played is that in which the eggs were thrown up in the air and caught. The boy who dropped his egg had to pay a forfeit.
In France the children are told that it is the church bells that have been to Rome to fetch them their eggs.
Easter in Germany
In Germany Easter is started by covering the cross on Good Friday. On this day they eat dishes which have fish in them.Easter starts with mass, which is started on Saturday evening and continues until Sunday morning. On Sunday it is Family Day on this day they have a special Easter lunch and they have colored eggs and a cake which is shaped like a lamb.
They also eat other sweet foods such as cookies, cake and chocolate on this day and the best part of the day is the hiding of the eggs and cookies in the garden.
Another tradition is the Easter Fire which is where all the old Christmas trees are gathered up and burnt in a special place, this is done so as to clean away the last signs of winter and moving onto spring.
In Germany green eggs are used on Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday.
A town in Germany called Oberammergau, performs a passion play at Easter time. A passion play tells the story of the suffering, crucifixion and death of Jesus. 1200 villagers approximately perform in this six-hour play.
In Germany, just before the beginning of Lent, it is carnival time called Fasching. In Fasching parades in the city of Cologne, people wear masks and giant-sized paper-mâché heads, sometimes twice the size of their bodies.
Germans cook a type of thick doughnut called a Cruller to use up fat before Lent. In some villages people hold an Easter walk or ride in memory of the walk Jesus took to His death. On Easter Saturday night children light huge bonfires.
They have an egg tree. This is a small tree branch put in a vase about two weeks before Easter. Real eggs that have been painted and decorated are hung from the branches. Other small, highly decorated eggs the family has collected are also hung on the tree.
In Germany, children play a game called Chocolate Kiss.
Egg Gathering a popular outdoor game in Germany.
Also in Germany, eggs used for cooking are not broken but are emptied by blowing the contents into a bowl through pinholes at either end of the hen's egg. The hollow eggs are then died and hung from shrubs and trees during Easter week.
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